Sourdough Blueberry Muffins [Long Fermented Sourdough]
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These overnight sourdough blueberry muffins give you all the sweet, juicy goodness of a bakery style blueberry muffin but with the added benefits of long fermented sourdough!
Seriously, sourdough blueberry muffins don't get much better.These muffins allow you to ferment the milk and flour at room temperature overnight, before adding the other ingredients in the morning.
They are the perfect sourdough breakfast on a cold morning.
These overnight sourdough blueberry muffins can be made using fresh blueberries if you have them, otherwise frozen blueberries are perfectly fine.
Use your own sourdough starter to make these delicious muffins for a healthy breakfast tomorrow! I promise you'll love them! You don't need any fancy equipment - no stand mixer or hand beaters - just a large bowl and your favorite muffin pan.
They are a great way to get some blueberry flavor into your day!
Why Ferment Sourdough Muffins Overnight?
This overnight sourdough muffin recipe ferments all of the flour, together with the milk, which means that it has a lower level of phytic acid and won't spike blood sugar as easily as regular sourdough discard blueberry muffins. Overnight fermented muffins may also be more gently on your stomach and be a better option for people with gluten sensitivities (although each individual is different, so please speak to your doctor or dietician about the best option for you).
There are so many health benefits to eating sourdough - most of them coming from the long fermentation period of sourdough bread.
Now in the case of muffins, we generally use some of the sourdough discard and add this to our recipe. This still gives us some of the fermentation benefits of sourdough, however, there is still a portion of "unfermented flour" in most sourdough muffin recipes.
Now this recipe does contain sugar so it's not totally "healthy" but you can replace the sugar with honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar if you like. There are notes on this in the recipe card below.
Other sourdough recipes that ferment overnight like these sourdough blueberry muffins include sourdough blueberry cookies, long fermented sourdough waffles, sourdough English muffins, overnight sourdough pancakes and this overnight sourdough bread recipe. You can also find a whole host of other overnight sourdough discard recipe here.
Or you might like this long fermented sourdough bread recipe!
How To Make Overnight Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
If you familiar with making a basic sourdough muffin recipe, you will know that we generally add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir minimally to ensure we don't get a tough muffin.
The method of making these moist muffins with an overnight fermentation is a little different.
You need to ferment the flour and milk overnight, before creating a liquid batter with the other ingredients that you add to the fermented flour and milk.
The Night Before
- Before you go to bed, mix the sourdough starter (or discard), all purpose flour and milk in a medium sized bowl. Stir until it forms a sticky dough and cover with plastic wrap. Leave it on the counter to ferment overnight.
- I use cold milk to ensure that the fermentation is prolonged a little and it's ready to make the muffins when I get up in the morning.
The Next Morning
- When you're ready to make the muffins, preheat your oven to 180C (350F).
- Grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter and set aside (you can use butter, cooking spray or even melted coconut oil).
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract until they are well combined.
- Then add the brown sugar, white sugar, baking powder and salt to the mixture and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and everything is well combined.
- Now pour this batter into the fermented milk and flour. Use a whisk or metal spoon to combine the two batters. I find a rubber spatula is handy to ensure you get all the mixture off the sides of the bowl. It can seem like they won't combine, but keep going, they will! The batter will be quite stretchy and feel different to a normal muffin batter.
- Once the muffin batter is fully combined, carefully fold in the blueberries. You can use fresh or frozen (see notes below).
- Now spoon the batter into your muffin cups. You can use an ice cream scoop to ensure consistent amounts if you like. I choose not to use cupcake liners or paper liners as I love the crispy outer you get without them.
- Bake the muffins at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Should I Use Starter or Discard?
It really doesn't matter at all for this recipe because you are essentially feeding the starter with flour and milk. This makes it a great way to use up some sourdough discard and turn it into something delicious!
The only caveat here is that your starter needs to be rising and falling consistently for this to work. So if your starter is less than a few weeks old and is not yet rising, save this recipe for when it is 🙂
You'll get a much tastier result once the wild yeast are more established in your sourdough starter.
What Makes These Overnight Muffins Moist?
These muffins are super moist because of the fermented flour and milk which retains the moisture, as well as the blueberries (I actually find frozen blueberries make moister muffins than fresh blueberries).
Many sourdough muffin recipes and even regular muffin recipes use sour cream to make moist muffins. This recipe requires no sour cream or baking soda - just tonnes of yummy blueberries!
Top Tips for The Best Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
This sourdough blueberry muffin recipe is definitely very easy - that's the best part! But there are a few things I wanted to note to make sure you get success the very first time you make these muffins.
- Use cold milk when you set up the flour and milk ferment the night before. The cold milk ensures that the milk and flour will not ferment too quickly and will be ready for you to make the muffins for breakfast the next day.
- If using frozen blueberries, keep them frozen right until you're ready to fold them through the mixture. This will ensure they won't bleed all through your batter and make your muffins purple.
- I don't recommend using a wooden spoon to mix the fermented flour and milk together with the rest of the ingredients. The batter is very sticky and stretchy and I find a rubber or silicone spatula or a whisk is best. This batter is very different to a regular muffin batter.
- Don't allow the milk and flour mixture to ferment for more than 12 hours. After this, the gluten in the flour will start to break down and your muffins will not get a good rise and will be very sour. If you are going to leave it longer than 12 hours, you'd need to store it in the fridge.
Flavor Variations
While these are overnight sourdough blueberry muffins, you can use this as a base recipe. You really could replace the blueberries with other berries or fruits (like raspberries, blackberries or even strawberries) there are also other things you could add to these blueberry sourdough muffins to take their flavor to the next level!
- replace up to half the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour or all purpose einkorn flour.
- replace 100g of the blueberries with 100g of chocolate chips so you end up with chocolate blueberry sourdough muffins (milk or white chocolate work really well). If you don't have chocolate chips, chocolate chunks or your fave chocolate chopped into small pieces also works.
- add some lemon zest to the mixture, or even the zest of a whole orange. A squeeze of lemon juice is lovely too!
- Sprinkle some raw sugar or even coconut sugar onto the tops of the muffins before baking for a little crunch.
- for a decadent treat serve these muffins with a vanilla cream cheese icing (you'll find my favorite one here) or alongside a dish of whipped cinnamon honey butter or even cultured butter.
Equipment for Making Long Fermented Sourdough Muffins
While this is a basic recipe that does not require a great deal of equipment, it can be useful to ensure do have a few things on hand to have the best success with this recipe. These are a few of my favorite things and some of the things you'll see in the photos I've added to the recipe:
- 6 hole muffin tins (I often use 2 of these just because I love the shape of the muffins - but you can most definitely use a 12 hole tin if you like).
- Kitchen Scale - essential for sourdough baking
- Wire rack - I'm loving this sized cooling rack to maximise my counter space on baking days
Store, Freeze + Make Ahead
These overnight sourdough blueberry muffins should be stored in an airtight container to keep them fresh. I recommend eating them within 48 hours for the best taste and texture (that's if they actually last that long!!).
You can freeze this easy recipe in a ziploc bag for up to 3 months.
I haven't included any specific "make ahead" instructions since these muffins are fermented overnight, so you are kind of making them ahead anyway!
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely you can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones. I find it easiest to leave the frozen blueberries in the freezer until right before you need them. Fold them through the mixture quickly and then straight into the oven so that the frozen blueberries don't bleed juice through your muffin batter.
You can lightly toss your blueberries in some all purpose flour before adding them to the batter. This will help them to stay in place during baking rather than sinking to the bottom.
Yes, it's perfectly safe to allow the milk to sit out overnight. A good trick is to use cold milk in the mixture with the sourdough starter and flour. This slows the fermentation down and ensures it will last the night. The good bacteria in the sourdough starter will stop it from going bad.
I don't recommend leaving the actual batter out overnight. You'll get the best results from fermenting the flour overnight with the milk, then adding the remainder of the ingredients the next morning, right before baking. You can of course keep the batter in the fridge for the night if you prefer.
Overnight Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
Equipment
- 12 Hole Muffin Tin
Ingredients
For Overnight Ferment
- 50 g Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard
- 250 g All Purpose Flour
- 200 g Milk Cold
The Next Morning
- 2 Eggs
- 60 g Butter Melted
- 5 g Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)
- 50 g Brown Sugar (see notes for subs)
- 50 g White Sugar (see notes for subs)
- 9 g Baking Powder (1.5 level tsp)
- 4 g Salt
- 200 g Blueberries Fresh or Frozen
Instructions
The Night Before
- Before you go to bed, mix the sourdough starter (or discard), flour and milk in a medium sized bowl. Stir until it forms a sticky dough and cover with plastic. Leave it on the counter to ferment overnight.I use cold milk to ensure that the fermentation is prolonged a little and it's ready to make the muffins when I get up in the morning.
In The Morning
- When you're ready to make the muffins, turn on the oven and preheat it to 180C / 350F.
- Grease a 12 hole muffin tin with butter and set aside.
- Whisk together the eggs, melted butter and vanilla until they are well combined.
- Then add the brown and white sugar, baking powder and salt to the mixture and whisk until the sugar is dissolved and everything is well combined.
- Now pour this batter into the fermented milk and flour. Use a whisk or metal spoon to combine the two batters. It can seem like they won't combine, but keep going, they will! The batter will be quite stretchy and feel different to a normal muffin batter.
- Once the muffin batter is fully combined, carefully fold in the blueberries. You can use fresh or frozen (see notes below).
- Now spoon the batter into your muffin tin. I choose not to use cupcake wrappers as I love the crispy outer you get without them.
- Bake the muffins at 180C / 350F for approximately 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Notes
Nutrition
